Social Responsibility
 

Ok, So I'm reading my Accounting text and it starts to get into this whole ethics and morals thing and I start thinking. Is it ever ok for a person to be responsible for another person? I mean, is it ok for me to punish somone else just because of what I think? (i.e. I think they did something wrong, they might not agree) I feel like I'm not finding the right words to express the question I'm asking. Ok, let me try again: I might believe that sharing software (sorry, first thing that came to mind) without registering it is wrong. Someone else thinks that it's all right to share that same software. Just because I believe it's wrong, do I have the right to take action about it? What makes me right and them wrong?

DISCLAIMER: I'm not trying to get into a "my ethics and beliefs are right and yours aren't" debate. I'm just asking when we got permission to decide someone else's action is the right or wrong one. Just thought it might be interesting.

You didn't give a whole lot to go on. If you are talking about something criminal that would fall under citizens' arrest like driving drunk for example or, whistle blowing if you know someone is cheating on their taxes or misappropriating funds those might be looked upon with as many differing opinions as people you ask. If we are talking about going to the library and copying pages from a book or plagerism in essays, you still won't find consensus. Sometimes action should be taken, other times, I would directly confront the perp.

An example I can remember-In our multi-cultural education class we had an assignment that was very time consuming. I worked my tail off with interviews, photos etc. My friend had the same class and basically took my format and fabricated the entire project. We both made "A's". What she did was unethical. She turned in a false report. I was really ticked off because it diminished the value of my "A". Did I report it or even talk about it to her? No.

I would be interested to know what scenario you are thinking about. A place to start is- ask yourself-Is she/he hurting anyone or just herself. This runs deeper than you might initially think. Go from there.